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Olympic champion Emilee Cherry has rejoined the Australian women's rugby sevens program as Tim Walsh's assistant coach ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
Tim Walsh jokes that Emilee Cherry will be the good cop to his bad cop as Australia's women's rugby sevens new assistant coach.
But he said there is a competitive edge to the Olympic champion that will serve them well as they look to seal another world title then set their sights on Commonwealth Games gold.
Cherry retired as a player before the delayed 2021 Olympics, after making a comeback following the birth of her first child.
She is arguably the greatest to wear the uniform, Cherry a key piece of the 2016 Rio gold medal side, a match-winner in Australia's first World Series triumph in 2015-16 and the first Australian to win World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in 2014.
And, according to Walsh, a natural coach too.
"Back in the day when she was playing ... they were sort of coaching themselves," Walsh, who has returned to the women's program after a stint in charge of the men, said.
"And you could just tell by the way she communicated and saw the game she'd be a great coach.
"(She'll be the) good cop. It's what I got her in for. But no, she's a winner, there's a ruthless edge to Emily."
Cherry fast-tracked her coaching skills through an Australian Institute of Sport program designed for elite athletes, especially women, with ambitions to transition into coaching.
"It's pretty amazing to be back in this environment to help the next generation," she said.
"As a player I solely focused on that, but looking back I guess I've got a teaching degree, always loved the clinics so I've always had it in the back pocket."
The side spent last week based in Brisbane training against schoolboy teams, while they included former Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell in a session this week ahead of the next World Series leg in Canada from April 30.
Australia have won three of the four events and can seal the title in Langford, although it will come with an asterisk given Olympic champions New Zealand have not featured in the series until now.
Attention will then switch to Birmingham's Commonwealth Games in July, where they'll be out to reverse their extra-time loss in the final to New Zealand on the Gold Coast four years ago.